Author: Henry Dang

On the evening of April 21st, the RoboLancers set out on a 15 hour bus ride to St. Louis, Missouri. As the winner of the Chairman’s Award (an award given to the team that “embodies the the purpose and goals of FIRST”) in both the city and regional competition, the RoboLancers were eligible to go to the Worlds competition.

Of course, the fee for this trip was not cheap. However, our generous sponsors, including the University of Pennsylvania and Drexel University, as well as the alumni of Central High School and other generous donators, have all pitched in enough money in order to pay for all the expenses.

We stayed in St. Louis, Missouri for a total of 5 days. Conveniently, we stayed at the Westin Hotel, which was only a short walk’s distance away from the competition arenas. Upon arrival at the arena (which was actually a football field), most of the seats were filled, with the exception of the seats on the upper-level. This was quite surprising, considering that only the FRC (FIRST Robotics Challenge) teams were in the stands.

Aside from the FRC teams, there were also many FLL (FIRST Lego League) teams there as well, although it was on a separate floor. The FTC (FIRST Tech Challenge) teams were kept in a completely different building due to the lack of space.

During the FRC competition, our robot underwent a significant change.   Most robots were able to grab the recycling containers in the center of       the field, which netted their team a huge bonus if they managed to place   it on top of a stack of totes (gray rectangular boxes). Without these two     recycling containers, it became much harder to outscore your opponent   unless they made a mistake or accidentally knocked over their stack.

As a result, in order to keep up with the other teams, we had to add our
own recycling can-grabbers. This was done during the competition, and it essentially is two metal rods that open up into a T shape in order to grab the backs of the recycling containers.

Although we made significant improvements to our robot, we did not manage to win in our division (Newton division).

Of course, even without the robots, there were a lot of other things to do. For example, there was the Innovation Faire, located in the Renaissance St Louis Grand Hotel. There were a lot of companies, such as NVIDIA, Boeing, PTC, and LEGO. Many colleges seeking aspiring children and teenagers were there as well, including Yale University, MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), and Kettering University.

Aside from that, I also managed to take a selfie with Woodie Flowers. No, not the wooden cardboard cutout version, but the actual person. Huge shout-out to Ariana Versace for managing to find Woodie Flowers amidst thousands of people, and of course, to Woodie Flowers for agreeing to take a picture with us.

The trip to St. Louis, Missouri, was an amazing experience, and one that I hope to have again. Of course, even though we didn’t win, it was an eye-opening experience. This was our second time going to the Worlds competition. But you know what they say, third times the charm.

 

Would you like to see more pictures? If so, please click here.

 

On March 13 to March 14th, the Robolancers competed at Springside Chestnut Hill Academy. The unique thing about this year’s game was that the human players could slide silver totes (boxes used in the game) through a chute for the robots to grab. Stacking these silver totes into a specific white zone gave teams point. There is also a green recycling trash can that could be placed on top for even more bonus points. Robots can obtain totes and recycling trash cans through the huge assortment of silver totes near the center of the field.

Furthermore, the gold totes, if stacked in the center by both sides, would grant “coopertition” (cooperation + competition) points to both sides. The most unique thing, though, was the fact that human players could toss “litter” (pool noodles) over the wall of the field, as if they were gold Olympic medalist javelin throwers, into the opposing side for extra points.

Overall, the robot designs at the event were impressive. For example, Techfire, team 225, had a robot that allowed it to create two sets of two-stack tall totes (the boxes) at once. MOE, team 365, had a robot that resembled a forklift truck. Our team, team 321, had a series of hooks on a belt that rotated. This allowed our robot to snag on several totes at once.

However, we did encounter several issues, including parts falling off during matches. Despite all of these setbacks, we still ended up becoming the 8th seeding captain for the event, which meant we would be going to the semi-finals. We were paired with team 484, Roboforce, and team 3637, The Daleks. With their help, we landed in 2nd place by the end of the quarters-finals matches. By the time we reached the end of the semi-finals, we ended up in 4th place, which was a great accomplishment for the entire team.

Additionally, we also won a creativity award for our hook design, and for our extensive use of sensors. As one Robolancer member generously commented, we had a “bucket of sensors”.